VenusOS

OutsourcedGuru

I thought I'd create a topic for this since nobody seems to be talking about it. I'm currently working on a project which uses VenusOS.

• Raspberry Pi 3B single-board computer, microSD card for storage and a plastic enclosure
• Victron's VenusOS software image
• Victron's VE.Direct to USB interface cable to be connected into the Victron SmartSolar 150/100 device and the Pi

So basically, you install and configure the VenusOS onto the Raspberry computer and it essentially becomes the guts of Victron's own GX-based remote consoles like Cerbo GX, Venus GX, Energy GX... (minus their own plastic case). I would imagine that most coders at this point would add a TFT touchscreen to the Raspberry Pi and control it this way. It's my intent to just add a Python-based daemon which queries the state of the system and does activities based upon this.

Goals:

• I would like to use the waste electricity produced after my bank of batteries have been charged. I have the potential of producing, say, 5 kWh of power in a day but I might normally use only 1 or so if things are idle. I could then put some kind of programmable load on one of the Victron relays or just use one of these TP-Link power plugs; I like them because they have a good API interface and are easy to programmatically toggle or schedule.
• I would like to lower the load on some devices on a day when I'm not producing much electricity. Again, I could programmatically turn off unnecessary powered devices using the TP-Link plug.
• I think I would like to buy a Victron Orion-Tr Smart (DC-to-DC) device to sometimes charge a separate pair of 12V batteries in parallel in the afternoon. In theory, I'll use a different inverter connected to them and run something like my washing machine outside. (I currently run that using a small generator.) The Python script mentioned before would toggle the Victron device as necessary.
• I might like to change the mounting of my solar panels to allow for tracking the sun throughout the day and seasons.

Status:

[x] Installed VenusOS on the Pi
[x] Put the Pi on my wifi network, configured it for remote administration and ssh
[x] Purchased/received the VE.Direct cable and tested that
[x] Downloaded and installed a Shutdown modification feature for VenusOS itself
[x] Researched how/where to write the Python daemon within the VenusOS infrastructure
[ ] Research how to query the SmartSolar's status from something running within VenusOS
[ ] Write the daemon and log the response from VenusOS for status
[ ] Adjust the daemon to control something like the TP-Link plug device
[ ] Research the Qt QML format to potentially write a screen for my add-on to VenusOS, this being how they format screens like this one on the GX

Feel free to ask questions and make suggestions on what things I could do with a VenusOS once installed. I have a 1.6kW solar setup with a SmartSolar 150/100 charger, BMV-712, a Phoenix 24/1200 inverter plus Bluetooth dongle, a pair of off-brand inverters (3000W pure sine wave and a gifted 2000W square wave which only provides 104VAC at the moment). I also have six gifted older dead-ish 12V deep-cycle marine lead-acid batteries which I might use in something.